1. Field of the Invention
Subject of the present invention is a disposable device, a rack for receiving an analytical tube vessel and a rack system for use in a fluid handling instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
Analytical processes have received some attention, particularly in the health care field. Determination of constituents of a liquid, and importantly of body fluids, like blood, has been improved to be very accurate. Furthermore, automation of the process steps involved has found widespread use. In addition, there has been a tendency to develop analytical processes that can work with very small volumes. In order to handle those tiny volumes, the disposables and the instruments for determining any analytes in said liquids are found to meet certain requirements that are not as important to meet in conventional devices and instruments. Furthermore, future processes will need to be much more convenient to be used by low-skilled personnel.
Conventional rack systems are based on a container that has portions adapted to receive vessels that contain certain volumes of sample fluid, primarily in the form of holes fitting to the diameter of the vessels. As most vessels have a circular diameter, the holes conventionally have a cylindrical form. Such rack is disclosed in WO 83/00393. There has been a trend to conduct several analyses on different samples in one instrument. The volumes required for such analyses may vary, dependent upon the number of analyses to be performed on one sample. In WO 96/27442 there is disclosed an adapter to be inserted into a cylindrical hole to reduce the diameter of the hole, such that even smaller tubes can be securely contained in said hole.
It was an object of the present invention to improve the conventional rack systems, particularly to better serve the needs of automated processing by instruments for handling small volumes.